Luke #24: Comparative Greatness (9:28-50)
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Luke 9:28-50
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Bye kids!
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being here today, whether you are here in the room or joining us online through the app, the website, Facebook, or YouTube. I know that I can hardly wait each week to be here in Family Worship with the church body to meet God together and to be refreshed and restored.
If you’re a guest or a visitor this morning, we appreciate you as well! Thanks for being here today, whether you’re a believer or are just checking out the Jesus and the church, whether you’re in the room or online. We’d like to be able to send you a note of thanks for your visit this morning, so if you wouldn’t mind getting us a little information, it would mean a lot to us. If you’re online, you can jump over to our I’m New page on the website or the app and fill out the contact card at the bottom. If you’re in the room, you can just fill out the Welcome card that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. At the close of service, you can either drop it in the offering boxes by the doors, or if you would, you can bring it down to me here at the front, so I can say hello if I haven’t had the chance already this morning, and so I can give you a small gift to thank you for your visit. Thanks in advance for taking the time.
You might not know that there are several members of Eastern Hills who are certified biblical counselors (or are working on their certification right now). They really are a Godsend to this congregation, and spend so many hours ministering to both members of our church family and many who are not a part of Eastern Hills. Thanks to those of you who serve as biblical counselors and the discipleship that you bring to those to meet with.
Opening
Opening
We are on a journey through the Gospel of Luke this year, and if you were here last week, you’ll recall that we looked at verses 18-27 of chapter 9, which marks (along with today’s passage) the highpoint of Jesus’s ministry arc and of the disciples’ understanding of who He is and what He has come to do. We saw that there is a question that we all must answer: Who do you say that Jesus is? and that is the most important question we can address. We also considered that the truth we must believe is that Jesus lived, was crucified and died in our place for our sins, and that He rose again so we could be saved. There is, furthermore, a path we must follow if we belong to Jesus: We must follow HIS path, denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and following Him, and not our own way.
Last week’s focal passage ended with verse 27 of chapter 9, where Jesus told the disciples that there were some standing there who would not “taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” This morning, we will see the fulfillment of that promise.
So please open your Bibles or your Bible apps to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 9, and stand as you are able to do so in honor of the reading of God’s Word as we look at verses 28-50 of that chapter:
28 About eight days after this conversation, he took along Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly, two men were talking with him—Moses and Elijah. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. 32 Peter and those with him were in a deep sleep, and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who were standing with him. 33 As the two men were departing from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he was saying. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. They became afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They kept silent, and at that time told no one what they had seen. 37 The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, because he’s my only child. 39 A spirit seizes him; suddenly he shrieks, and it throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; severely bruising him, it scarcely ever leaves him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.” 41 Jesus replied, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” 42 As the boy was still approaching, the demon knocked him down and threw him into severe convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were all astonished at the greatness of God. While everyone was amazed at all the things he was doing, he told his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink in: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this statement; it was concealed from them so that they could not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. 46 An argument started among them about who was the greatest of them. 47 But Jesus, knowing their inner thoughts, took a little child and had him stand next to him. 48 He told them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me. For whoever is least among you—this one is great.” 49 John responded, “Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us.” 50 “Don’t stop him,” Jesus told him, “because whoever is not against you is for you.”
PRAYER (Israel/Iran war and US involvement, pray for our friends)
Have any of you ever been really into boxing? Not boxing yourself, but watching fights? I enjoy a good boxing match, and I always have. I’ve seen some doozies (on TV… I’ve never been to live boxing): I was watching when Sugar Ray Leonard beat Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987. In 1990, I saw Evander Holyfield take the title from James “Buster” Douglas, who had taken it from Mike Tyson. We had people over at our apartment to watch the pay-per-view as Holyfield beat Tyson in their first meeting in 1996, and then again in 1997 as Holyfield and Tyson held their second bout, when Tyson bit a piece of Holyfield’s ear off in the third round and was disqualified.
One fighter that I don’t remember ever seeing live on TV was Muhammad Ali, whose last fight was in 1981. I remember that I watched a couple of fights with my grandpa when I stayed at my grandparents’ house in the summers, but I was too young to remember who the boxers were. I’ve of course seen highlights. Ali was an impressive fighter, but what was perhaps even more impressive was his personality outside the ring. He was not shy about declaring his opinion that he was the greatest who had ever been in the sport (and sometimes even outside the sport). He is quoted as saying things like:
“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”
“It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.”
“I’m the greatest. I’m a bad man, and I’m pretty.”
“My only fault is that I don’t realize how great I really am.”
“I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round.”
—Muhammad Ali
Obviously, humility was not a key character trait that Ali projected publicly. He declared that he was “the greatest” because of his ability to beat up other men in controlled environments. And while he was certainly one of the greatest boxers ever, one could argue about whether or not he was the greatest.
How do we define greatness? We talk about about people being the GOAT (the greatest of all time), and what we mean when we say that is that they are the best at their particular niche that we’ve ever seen. We don’t mean that this person is overall the greatest person to ever live. No, that title is already held by someone, and it will never be relinquished.
Jesus is truly the greatest person to ever live. He is in a class all by Himself. No one human being has had as much impact on the world, on history, or on people’s lives as Jesus has. No one human being has been as well known throughout time, and none has been the subject of as much writing, art, philosophy, academic study, music, and speaking as Jesus has. It’s not even close. Jesus is the greatest person who has ever lived or will ever live. He sets the standard of what true greatness is, and everyone else who is striving to be great is only chasing a distant second place.
In our focal passage this morning, we see four aspects of greatness modeled and taught through Jesus’s life and ministry, starting with the disclosure of His greatness through His Transfiguration:
1: True greatness disclosed
1: True greatness disclosed
Now, when I say that Jesus is in a class all by Himself, I mean that He is totally unique in His greatness, and what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration revealed that truth. Luke intentionally connects the Transfiguration with what came immediately before it (last week) in his Gospel:
28 About eight days after this conversation, he took along Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly, two men were talking with him—Moses and Elijah. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Jesus this time takes along only those considered the “inner three” Apostles: Peter, James, and John—a special privilege, to be sure. There are several opinions about what physical mountain the Transfiguration occurred on, but none of the Gospel writers cared to tell us, because WHAT happened is infinitely more important than WHERE it happened. Here again, as throughout Luke, every major moment in Jesus’s life is preceded by prayer. In this one, as He was praying, Jesus was transfigured. His face changed, and His clothes were dazzlingly white. The three Apostles are allowed to see Jesus in the fullness of His glory: what He will look like at His second coming when He returns as the conquering King of Kings to set all things right again.
There is a similar, but more detailed, description of the glorified appearance of Jesus in Revelation 1:
13 and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest. 14 The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow—and his eyes like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of cascading waters. 16 He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.
In this moment on the mountain, there is at least a partial fulfillment of what Jesus had promised to His disciples in verse 27: that some of them wouldn’t taste death until they saw the kingdom of God. There is no accident that Luke connected these two passages so closely.
And along with the glorified Jesus, there appeared on the mountain Moses and Elijah, also in their glorified states. They represent the Law, which was given through Moses, and the Prophets, of whom Elijah was considered the greatest. These two are brought together in Christ, because Jesus fulfills what was written in both:
17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.
Jesus is greater than either Moses or Elijah because He has completed what both of them were only looking forward to. He fulfilled all that the Old Testament said about Him, and as God, He reigns over both. Their discussion was about His coming “departure,” likely the sum total of His death, resurrection, and ascension, which would be accomplished in the not-to-distant future in Jerusalem. What a scene this must have been for the Apostles!
And, like probably many of us would be prone to do, the three Apostles don’t handle the situation particularly well. First off, they had been sleeping when all of the excitement started:
32 Peter and those with him were in a deep sleep, and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who were standing with him. 33 As the two men were departing from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he was saying. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. They became afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They kept silent, and at that time told no one what they had seen.
Once they wake up and realize the change that has come over Jesus and the fact that there are two other glorious men who weren’t there before having a conversation with Him, Peter opens His mouth and inserts his foot by making perhaps the greatest understatement of all time followed by a terrific verbal blunder. “It’s good for us to be here.” No kidding! Then he follows this with a plan: we’ll pitch three tents so this moment doesn’t have to end.
His blunder is multi-faceted. In making his suggestion in the way that he did, he makes Jesus, Moses, and Elijah all equal. They are not. He also was trying to extend a moment that was obviously coming to a close, as Moses and Elijah were turning to leave. Luke attempts to soften our criticism of Peter here by saying that he was “not knowing what he was saying.” Agreed.
Then, like Moses had experienced on the Mount of Sinai, the cloud of the presence of God descended on the mountaintop, and the three Apostles heard the Lord’s voice speak: “This my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!”
This statement is actually a collection tying together three references from Messianic passages in the Old Testament:
7 I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
1 “This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the nations.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
This clearly and decisively answers the question, “Who is Jesus?” Peter had answered the question in verse 20 last week, and God Himself answers it this week. Peter later affirmed this experience when he wrote his second letter to the churches, confirming the truth of what Luke had written:
16 For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” 18 We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.
When the voice had spoken, all that remained with the three was Jesus. Jesus is the focus. Not the Law. Not the prophets. Simply Jesus. He is most important. He is our foundation.
And while Luke doesn’t record it, they were told not to share the details of their visit on the mountaintop with others until Jesus was raised from the dead, according to the parallel account in Matthew 17:
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Don’t tell anyone about the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”
So they didn’t. They kept the Transfiguration to themselves until after Jesus had died and been raised to life again. This is because it would only be after the resurrection that the disciples would fully understand the necessity of the crucifixion.
Jesus here is shown to be the greatest human being to ever walk the face of the earth. He is the Son of God incarnate, the Chosen One of God for HIs purposes and glory. He is absolutely unique. He is the measure of true greatness, because not only is Jesus a human being, but He is the complete radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of God’s nature, because He is both man and God, as the writer of Hebrews says:
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
There has never been anyone greater. There is no one greater. There could never be anyone greater than Jesus. And while I can’t really blame Peter for wanting to make the shelters and stay up on the mountain, there comes a time when we have to come down from those experiences and actually engage the world with the truth that has been disclosed to us about who Jesus is. And as they come down the mountain, opportunity is given for Jesus to once again display His power and greatness.
2: True greatness displayed
2: True greatness displayed
As we have seen several times in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus displayed His power and authority in the next scene of our focal passage this morning, as He confronts a demon possessing a young boy.
37 The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, because he’s my only child. 39 A spirit seizes him; suddenly he shrieks, and it throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; severely bruising him, it scarcely ever leaves him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.” 41 Jesus replied, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” 42 As the boy was still approaching, the demon knocked him down and threw him into severe convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43a And they were all astonished at the greatness of God.
A crowd had gathered around, because the disciples who had been left behind had been unable to drive this demon out of the boy, even though they had been given power and authority over demons and sickness (9:1). Whether the demon caused this boy to experience what seems very similar to what we know as epileptic seizures, or the demon simply exploited the epilepsy that the boy was already afflicted with doesn’t matter. This boy was suffering at the hands of this demon, and often. For some reason the disciples find themselves impotent over this particular unclean spirit, and Jesus makes a statement that baffles us a little:
“You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you?”
Who are the “unbelieving and perverse”? What did Jesus mean when He asked how long He must “put up with them”? We get some help from the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark.
The unbelieving and perverse are probably everyone there. In Mark, we see that this isn’t a calm crowd, patiently waiting for Jesus to return. Instead, Jesus comes down to a crowd which included scribes (which He has already been in conflict with) arguing with the disciples. They are in conflict over this failed exorcism:
14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran to greet him. 16 He asked them, “What are you arguing with them about?”
Perhaps the disciples had not relied upon the power of God, but on their own power to drive out the demon. Either way, in Matthew’s account, Jesus says that the issue was at least in part their lack of faith:
19 Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20 “Because of your little faith,” he told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
As for His question of “putting up with” them, this is really another reference to His crucifixion. He knows that from this point forward, He will be moving toward Jerusalem and what awaits Him there. Still he has much to teach to His disciples, though they are woefully ignorant of the totality of the Gospel (which we will see more clearly in a moment), and the crowds are constantly in a state of unbelief, though they constantly want miracles and signs from Jesus.
As the boy is coming to Him, the demon takes one last opportunity to afflict the lad. Jesus rebukes the demon, and it comes out and the boy is healed. Everyone is astonished at the greatness of God being displayed in Jesus. With just a word, the demon had to leave. All things, whether in heaven or on earth, visible or invisible, including thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, (Col 1:16) are in Jesus’s hands, according to John 3:
34 For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. 36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
But this Chosen One, the Son of God, who has all things in His hands, would Himself be betrayed into the hands of those He had created, and this would be when His greatness would truly be demonstrated most clearly:
3: True greatness demonstrated
3: True greatness demonstrated
Jesus took this moment to reiterate something He had told His disciples about a week earlier when they were having the discussion about following Him. He tells them again about His coming passion:
43b While everyone was amazed at all the things he was doing, he told his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink in: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this statement; it was concealed from them so that they could not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
The word translated “betrayed” in verse 44 could also be translated “delivered.” So either Jesus will be “betrayed” into the hands of men (by Judas), or He will be “delivered” into the hands of men (by God). Either way, the outcome is the same: Jesus’s life will be placed in the hands of mankind. And we already know what the outcome will be, because of what Jesus said last week: that He will “suffer many things and be rejected..., be killed, and be raised the third day.” (9:22)
Why would Jesus talk about this right here at this moment? Because everyone is focused on His greatness. And Jesus’s greatness is going to be demonstrated most clearly, most powerfully, most radically not through driving out demons or healing epilepsy or other diseases, but through His dying on the cross. Jesus’s model of greatness is that true greatness serves others.
Jesus, the perfectly holy Son of God, died in our place as a sacrifice so that our sin debt would be paid. We don’t deserve this. What we deserve is to pay our own price, and the Scriptures tell us that what we deserve because of our sin in death—eternal separation from the Giver of life:
23a For the wages of sin is death,...
However, Jesus in His greatness took our place so that we could have eternal life instead!
23b ... but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We needed a sacrifice that was greater than we are, and we’ve already seen that Jesus is the greatest human being who has ever lived. And since He is human, He could be our representative in punishment. And since He is so great because He is God, He has the power to defeat death itself, which He did by rising from the grave. And then He ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He continues to intercede for us as our representative, while He awaits the time when He will come back in all His glory and restore everything, as we saw in our first point. When we believe in Jesus—trusting what He has done for our salvation, and surrendering to Him as Lord—then we are set free, declared to be in a good relationship with God, and given eternal life.
The author of Hebrews explains Jesus’s sacrificial greatness in chapter 10 of that book:
10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. 11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.
And in His sacrifice to deliver us from death, He has purchased us out of slavery to sin, and as a result, those who believe in Jesus are now called to follow Him, to be like Him, to do the good works that He does. This gives our lives new purpose for Jesus’s kind of greatness—greatness that is demonstrated in what we do for other people.
14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.
The funny thing about our focal passage this morning is that while we can see this, the Apostles couldn’t. They didn’t get it. They were still unbelieving to some extent. And it says that, “it was concealed from them so that they could not grasp it.” This wasn’t a divine concealing with the purpose (“so that”) that they wouldn’t understand. This was an unbelieving concealing with the result (“so that”) that they couldn’t understand. The thing that’s funny to me about it is the fact that they were afraid to ask Him about it. He told them to let what He said “sink in,” and it wasn’t sinking in, but they would rather not ask, but pretend they understood.
But they didn’t really understand, and the last scene proves it:
4: True greatness defined
4: True greatness defined
The disciples still have a wrong idea of what true greatness really is. Maybe there was some jealousy because Peter, James, and John got to go up on the mountain and weren’t telling any of the others what happened there? Maybe the three of them (or at least James and John… I could see it) actually gloated and said “nanny-nanny” to the others. Regardless, they argue with each other about which of them is the greatest:
46 An argument started among them about who was the greatest of them. 47 But Jesus, knowing their inner thoughts, took a little child and had him stand next to him. 48 He told them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me. For whoever is least among you—this one is great.”
Likely, they were arguing about position or treatment or authority. This will come up again in chapter 22, unfortunately.
Jesus handles this situation with a clear illustration by having a young boy stand with Him. Children at the time were not considered to be particularly valuable or important citizens. They had no power, no real rights, no resources. They were lowly from a societal perspective—they were certainly NOT “great.” But Jesus tells the disciples that their perspective was to be different. Mark’s includes this statement from Jesus:
35 Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.”
In his commentary on this passage, Robert H. Stein, explains it well:
“Greatness lies not in receiving preferential treatment from others or in having more authority than others. On the contrary it involves serving others, especially the outcasts of society as represented by a little child.”
—Robert H. Stein, The New American Commentary, Volume 24: Luke
And we are to have the same perspective. If we are denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Jesus, then we will willingly serve others who find themselves in need, even if there is no possibility that they could reciprocate, like that little child.
Consider a couple of other passages that help drive this point home into our hearts:
11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
43 But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This is Jesus’s example of true greatness: making Himself less so that lost humanity could be more. Philippians 2 makes this clear as well, but we won’t read it this morning.
And in the last couple of verses of our passage today, we see that the concept of serving one another extends beyond our own little circle, because it is the greatness of Jesus, not our own greatness, that binds us together as brothers and sisters:
49 John responded, “Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us.” 50 “Don’t stop him,” Jesus told him, “because whoever is not against you is for you.”
Notice how John said it: “...he does not follow us.” As if John’s greatness was part of what people were following. No sir. Just because this person wasn’t with the “in” crowd didn’t mean he wasn’t doing what God wanted him to do. Jesus rebuked John, saying, “whoever is not against you is for you.” Essentially, His point was that if the guy was driving out demons in the name of Jesus and being successful, then the kingdom of God wins, because they’re all on the same team.
I think we have a tendency to fall into John’s line of thinking. Do we think that only people who attend a Baptist church are saved? Certainly that’s not true. There are Jesus-honoring, biblically sound churches in many Christian denominations. And there are people who are truly saved and who love Jesus who serve in all kinds of capacities outside of their church program. We should be able to serve alongside them in love, out of dedication to Christ, because they are part of the family of God. We might not agree with them on everything, but we should be able to say with Rupertus Meldenius:
“In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
—Rupertus Meldenius
If we are united with Christ by faith, then we are also united with one another, and so long as we hold to the essentials that are true of that unity with Christ, then we should gladly support each other in ministry out of love for one another and for Jesus. Consider what Paul wrote about the unity of Christians:
12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
So can I just say: Eastern Hills is a great church, but not the only great church! We want other Jesus-following churches to succeed in their ministries, because when they win, the kingdom wins, and when the kingdom wins, we all win!
Closing
Closing
This is where true greatness is found: together in Christ. He is the only example of true and total greatness.
But becoming like Jesus starts with surrendering to Him.
Baptism
Church membership
Prayer
Giving
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Luke 3:1-4:13, Pro 15:1-29)
No Prayer Meeting this week (VBS)
Don’t forget the prayer walk for VBS immediately after service!
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
